Fade and morph between four samples with this pathfinding instrument. Each sample layer has granular controls over its playback, sure, but it’s what the connections between them that make Palindrome so interesting.

You draw 16 points across the grid to animate morphing between each of the four samples – although there are path presets for instant action, too. Each sample also gets two effects layers to bring in some extra life, and there are eight modulation envelopes that you can custom-draw to add yet another dimension to this sampler.

This one’s got four-voice polyphony, randomisation, 70 presets, 1.5GB of samples, and it’s available for both PC and Mac.

Coming from one of the biggest names in creative DJing, Sample lets you slice and rearrange the waveform you’ve loaded using MIDI notes. There are also more run-of-the-mill processes here, like tuning samples, stretching them, and getting your filter on.

Sample’s greatest asset, though, is its ability to analyze any waveform and intelligently figure out where to slice it for the most musical, beat-based loops. It’s a piece of cake to throw anything into samples and be able to get instant slice-based gratification – in fact, one of the best ways to find a setup you like is to lock certain slices that work, then randomise the rest of them, helping you come up with interesting, useable stuff to play via MIDI.

Regroover is another intelligent sampler but in a slightly different way. Once you’ve loaded up a drum loop, the plugin uses its powers to attempt to pull apart the different drums and cymbals within, placing each on its own track.

You can then reduce or increase each in level, or take things a bit further, placing individual isolated slices onto sixteen sampler-style pads to play from MIDI, re-playing the original groove or overriding it when you want to. Regroover also lets you add your own samples to the pads, to jam around with the original loop.

Save the planet and recycle your loops with this clever little plugin, available in Pro and Essential versions.

Sorry to all the peace-loving hippies out there, but modern sampling is a battlefield of competing plugins. Particularly well equipped for this warzone is Phalanx, Vengeance-Sound’s drum and synth sampler. On the surface, there are 16 pad slots to load in samples, which you can play from the plugin itself or a MIDI controller.

Phalanx is armed to the teeth with even more features: 6000 in-built sounds, graphic envelopers, 12 filter types, scratch simulation, sample tagging, a choice of 17 insert effects, two LFOs per sample slot, and loads more.

Phalanx is available in Basic or Premium versions, giving you different capabilities for different prices. There are also tonnes of expansion packs available for it.